PHIL 2050 Lecture 4: studentAMERICAN LEGAL REALISM
4 Dec 2017
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Not to be used without written permission of the copyright holder. Oliver wendell holmes (1841-1935), the path of law 1897. Jerome frank (1889-1957), law and the modern mind 1930. It is opposed to the conventional view" of adjudication. Law is whatever the courts will use the public might to enforce. Law is a profession concerned with the use of public force by courts. Sources of law are all just prophecies about what courts will do. Study of law = study of systematized predictions" of what courts will do. Through such study we might be able to make generalizations; make the rules laid down by courts more precise; and systematize court decisions into a coherent whole. (frank does not even think we can do this. ) Law is the system of predictions even a bad man wants to know. Story of the jones" and the williams" family taxi companies. Law is prediction or actual decision of a court.
